Tuesday, 8 November 2016

40kthulhu: Chapter 1 - The Object in the Bazaar

CHAPTER 1 - THE OBJECT IN THE BAZAAR

It was the morning after the sandstorm and the air was thick with tiny particles suspended in the air of the low-G zone. This was what had given rise to the vibrant trading hub at Urkar, just a few leagues distant from ancient Kahire. Merchants, smugglers, traders and many others besides made the most of the gravitic anomaly with both atmospheric craft and space-borne shuttles. In spite of the low visibility, the air above the landing pads was stacked high with craft, impatiently waiting their turn to land.

I had travelled to Urkar at the behest of my old professor, Kendry Mascharino. He had been sent a message from one Soloman Wyld, a junior holo-vid recordist for one of the Magnum Popula publications. According to Wyld, he had recorded some unsettling images at desert ruins near Kahire. Knowing my interest in unusual phenomena, and my studies in the subject, Professor Mascharino had been good enough to charter me an air-car south.

I had arranged to meet Wyld later that morning at a kulfee house just off the bazaar, but I rose early with devotional prayers ringing in my ears from the public broadcasts across the Urkar dawn. I resolved to orientate myself in the city, and discover the bazaar first-hand. After first tucking my small Boringen pistol into my waistband as security, I gathered up my old flight jacket from my stalled career as a pilot, and headed into the early morning haze.

In spite of the early hour, the alleys and thoroughfares of Urkar were busy - I assumed to allow the city's denizens to avoid the forthcoming heat of the midday sun. The citizens of Urkar were of many backgrounds and creeds - robed desert dwellers, long-legged off-worlders, masked devotees and many more besides.

The bazaar, when I reached it, was a riot of colour, sounds and scents. Had I desired it, I could easily have purchased narc-sticks, vuln oil, a pet timerind or bolts of beautifully embroidered cloth.

One stall in particular took my interest - there among the pots and lamps were a number of fragments of older things - things from the desert; things from the ruins.

A shard of blue pottery displayed a white eye. I saw a foot broken from some ancient statue. But one item in particular made me shudder to look upon it. A piece of dark black stone; slick as if covered in the residue of some unknown sea creature. The stone was oval, and sat snuggly in the palm of my hand. It was deeply incised with an image hurt my eyes, even as I looked at it: an image of a shapeless form and tentacles too many to count.

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40kthulhu - An Explanation

You might well have read the blogpost so far, and wondered just what the hell is going on! Over the next 6 months or so, myself, Asslessman (of Leadplague) and Gretchin (of Greenstuff Gretchin) are engaging in creating a collaborative project which draws heavily on the 40k universe and the Cthulhu mythos. Hopefully this approach will allow us to create a setting for our games, as well as some interesting and unique characters to use in them.

Each character we produce is planned to be based on Cthulhu character archetypes - academics, private investigators, gangsters and so on. They will inhabit the world of Providence - a world of regressive technology and rumoured dark cults. You can read the full fact file on Providence over at our project thread on the Ammobunker forums.

Introducing Kitty Hawke

My first character, and the narrator of my story arc, is Kitty Hawke, following the long tradition of plucky young women getting mixed up in situations rather more dangerous and sinister than they suppose.

I had originally planned for Kitty to be a Private Investigator, but after completing her, she looks more like an adventuring type, so Kitty is now more of a free-radical Adventurer.

The blue flight jacket and orange accents on the boots and goggles were my attempt to ensure Kitty was recognisably a sci-fi rather than pulp figure - hopefully the colours have done enough in that regard.

As for the model - Kitty is a conversion based on Citadel's old Venus Bluegenes model from the Rogue Trooper line:

Thanks JB! I have to say I really enjoyed the whole process - making the figure, painting her, writing the story (and attempting to use Lovecraftian language), putting my terrain down and making the scenes. Hopefully this is a project we can all enjoy!

I spent a little while thinking how to present the setting, then Asslessman suggested doing chapters - it seems to make perfect sense for the project. I suspect we can each do our own story arcs and have them intersect or run parallel to flesh out the setting. I did consider doing some FX on the photos, but in the end decided a simple vignette border was sufficient!

Really engaging intro story Axiom! I like your conversion work, as I always do :)

I should get involved in the Ammobunker at some stage. I've looked at it a few times over the years, but as of yet haven't taken the plunge. God knows there's more than enough on there to keep my interested for a very long time :)

Thanks very much! I've been developing my 'staging' of photos over the last couple of years. I've gone from having barely any terrain, to having a decent selection plus NPCs and scatter terrain. Its pretty rewarding to put stuff out and take pics!

Thanks very much! I really enjoy playing around with things. For some reason Kitty was a significant improvement on the original model. I didn't really rate the original sculpt, but now I'm a little in love with Kitty ;)

About Me

I've been gaming since the late 1980s - I tend to get distracted and jump from one project to another. The one constant is that I love the character of Citadel miniatures of the late 1980s and early 1990s - Warhammer, Blood Bowl, Rogue Trader.